Like affects like. A convenient (but limited) proxy ritual for the ethically squeamish.
Cost: 4 Minor Charges
Overview:
This ritual draws upon a principal exploited by anyone seeking to take advantage of the European principal of sympathetic magick (what, you thought voodoo dolls had something to do with the actual practice of Voudoun?). It works as a kind of voodoo doll in reverse. Instead of being used to work harmful effects on an enemy, it works to deflect harmful effects and scrying away from the caster.
Rictual Actions:
The ritualist makes a doll of at least 6 inches in height from his or her own clothes, being as artistic as possible–some people go so far as to buy one of those “make your own china doll” kits and paint their own face on the front. This is helpful, but not totally necessary. Discernable arms, legs, head and facial features are required, however.
The doll needs to be in the presence of the caster at for at three days and two nights. During that time, the caster must treat the doll in every way like a living, intelligent creature: talking to it, preparing meals for it, bathing it, taking it to the bathroom with him, etc. but most importantly addressing it with his own name. The final night of this ritual must coinside with the first night of the full moon.
On the third evening, the caster sets the doll in a silver bowl facing east and chants a verse in an archaic form of Gaelic. At moonrise, she cuts her left wrist (spending the minor charges at the same time) and fills the bowl with her own blood (doing a good 10 points of damage, though inexperienced cutters without first aid experience could do more), making certain the doll is good and soaked in gore. She then lets the doll sit in its bowl of blood for the remainder of the night, removing it at sunrise to dry. The doll can never be washed; doing so causes it to lose its effectiveness.
Effects:
This blood-soaked bundle of rags acts as a minor proxy to the caster at a fixed 35% Casters who make the extra effort to make the doll look like themselves (hair, recognizable facial features, clothing resembling something the caster frequently wears, etc) get an additional 5%.
The upside of creating a blood doll is that the doll can be used for proxy effects with a relatively clear conscience; no Self checks for you! No need to worry about the doll trying to usurp control of the link, either.
The downside to having a blood doll as your proxy is that it is a relatively fragile, very distinctive (not to mention smelly) inanimate object. Absorbing one long-distance blast or harmful ritual will destroy it and forget about using it for remote charging (it’s a doll, remember?). Its use as a spy is relatively limited as it can’t move about on its own, though you can use it as a sort of occult “security camera” on a fixed position or placed in a vehicle to help track someone’s movements. The level of proxy link also cannot be increased.
The other big downside is that because a blood doll is an inanimate object with a proxy link to the caster, it is vulnerable to theft and use by an enemy: for the purposes of tilts and mystic blasts, the presence of the caster’s blood doll counts as his presence and active consent in whatever ritual his enemy uses it for.